The Story of “Last Chance to Ride: Fish Lake”

A Chilcotin lake poised to be destroyed by a mine, that is ironically called Prosperity, that intends to fill it with rock waste and use as a tailings pond. An “easy” dirt road ride across British Columbia gone wrong, due to thousands of downed trees. These are the makings of “Last Trip to a Lost Lake” our recent article in the March issue of Cycle Canada (on stands now). Of course, there’s a story behind the story.

Road to Ruins – 2: Slab City

Slab City, “turn on, tune in, drop out”, this is a place to get at least one of those right. Gaining its appellation from the concrete slabs remaining from the flattened and abandoned WWII Marine Barracks Camp Dunlap, the slabs play host to hippies in shanty-town shacks, octogenarians RVs and hermits with a social life. But, the most notable resident is a man building a technicolor dream mountain.

Rally Raid Products UK – KTM 690 Enduro Tank Kit Review – Updated

Fuel; complain about paying for it, but not having enough is when it becomes a real pain. Especially in backwoods BC, where choosing the fun routes means gas stops are few and far between. By far we mean further than a KTM 690 Enduro R’s 12L stock tanks will carry you. Enter the Rally Raid Products UK Tank Kit, or the 9.5 litre solution for extending the range of our KTM 690 Hard Adventure R project.

Long Term Multistrada 1200 S: Princess or Borg Queen?

After hefting the Honda Varaderos through the Baja, I came to a conclusion – I hate big bikes in sand. Of course, taking the back way out of Slab City is what you’d expect of a desert; sand and deep sand at that. The surprise? Perhaps, we’ve been too quick in dubbing Ducati’s Multistrada 1200 S Touring “the Princess”.

BMW G450X meets a Bobsled

BMW stuntman Chris Pfeiffer heads up a hill on a G450X, a BMW sponsored bobsled heads down the hill thanks to gravity… all on the same track. What could possibly go wrong?

Road to Ruins – 1: The Salton Sea

We’re in a bar, because if you’re going to kick off a series called “Road to Ruins” it needs to start in a bar. A properly seedy bar, one in a town where dreams haven’t just been dashed or faded, they’ve been bludgeoned to death and their corpses dissolved in a toxic stew.

Adventure Photo: Multistrada on the Slab

While filming our upcoming adventure series, Road to Ruins, Kevin Miklossy captured this stunning shot of the Ducati Multistrada 1200 S at Slab City in south-eastern California.

Long Term Testing: Wolfgang and the Princess

Sometimes names stick, and if bikes have a temperament then our BMW R1200GS Adventure and the Ducati Multistrada 1200 S Touring have earned theirs. So, respectively meet Wolfgang and the Princess.

Neil and the Machine versus Florence and the Machine

72 Hours, 3 days; waiting in anticipation it can seem an eternity, but three days to ride from Vancouver to Los Angeles? That can seem all too brief. And the deadline? The will call at the Wiltern for a sold out concert of Florence and the Machine. Conspiring against me the scheduling deities are cramming the ride with a border crossing, two business meetings, and pesky biological needs; eating, sleeping and washroom all taking time from a 2,048 kilometer direct route. So, it’s Neil and the Machine, a R1200GS Adventure, versus Florence and the Machine.

Road to Ruins: What’s in a Name? Fate.

West Hollywood – Sitting in a West Hollywood Starbucks the answer appears to be, “Fate”. Fate is what’s in a name. Shakespeare may have written, “What’s in a name? that which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet”, but do you think that’s really case? Red stink-poesy, that wouldn’t cut…

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Neil and the Machine vs Florence and the Machine a Tweet-u-mentary

Tickets for up and comers and new U2 opening band Florence and the Machine Concert at the Wiltern have been offered up.  The problem is the concert is in Los Angeles on November 8th and the weather until now has been uncooperative. Watching the weather radar and forecasts like a hawk has revealed a rarity, a three day break.